Dr. Frank Turek of Crossexamined.org will be a keynote speaker at this year's Apologetics Canada Conference. Space is running out quickly, so sign up while you still can.
Frank Turek Explains How Bill Maher Steals From God
Dr. Frank Turek of Crossexamined.org will be a keynote speaker at this year's Apologetics Canada Conference. Space is running out quickly, so sign up while you still can.
The moral standard by which atheists condemn the biblical god for murder is “love…thinks no evil” in 1st Corinthians 13:4-5.
So if the bible is correct that God not only “is loving”, but IS love itself (1st John 4:16), then I shouldn’t be able to find any bible verses where God is either intending to do evil to somebody, or actually doing evil to somebody.
But such bible verses exist.
Deuteronomy 28:15-63 is the most depressing section of the bible, therein, God threatens to bring the very worst imaginable evils upon any who would disobey the Law. Those evils included his causing men to rape women (v. 30).
You may say God only causes evil passively by refusing to intervene, and so remains free of the guilt of causing evil. But throughout the Deut. 28:15-63 section, God is declaring himself the cause of the evils to be brought about, and since bible inerrancy doesn’t have nearly the level of universal acclaim that other interpretation-tools like “grammar” and “Context” have, I have no rational warrant to exalt bible inerrancy in my mind to the status of governing hermeneutic…in which case I have no valid basis to think that my interpretation here is wrong merely because it would contradict something else in the bible.
In Deut. 28:63, God is declaring that he will “delight” to bring that horrible list of unspeakable evils upon the disobedient (v. 53, how evil is cannibalizing your own kids?), no less than he “delights” to prosper those who obey him.
It was already difficult to believe God could facilitate rape and yet remain guilt-free, but assuming God’s passive role in evil is what keeps him from being guilty, I think most apologists reach the end of the trifling rope when their bible tells them that God will “delight” to cause evils like rape. Disciplining your kids is one thing. Getting a thrill out of causing rape is quite another. This is sufficiently contrary to how the bible elsewhere extolls the goodness of God, that suddenly, the “his ways are mysterious” doesn’t seem quite as attractive a response as it once did.